Louisiana woman gets life for rape, battery of young girl

Updated
10:50 am CDT, Friday, May 17, 2019

COVINGTON, La. (AP) — A 39-year-old Louisiana woman has received a life sentence for repeatedly raping a young girl.

St. Tammany Parish District Attorney Warren Montgomery says state District Judge William J. Burris sentenced Sandra E. Gaines, of Covington on Wednesday. Gaines was given two life sentences for two counts of aggravated rape and 25 years for each of three counts of sexual battery of a child under 13. Montgomery, in a news release Thursday, said the sentences will be served at the same time.

Gaines' boyfriend, 32-year-old Robert Cardell Flowers, also of Covington, was convicted in 2015 of the same charges and is serving a life sentence.

The victim, now 18, testified that Gaines and Flowers began touching her sexually when she was about 5 years old.